Thursday, January 27, 2005

The Road to Unanimous

ESPN.com's college basketball writers are out with their Power 16 this week. (Nice picture of Augie on the men's college ball page at time of this posting.) The results are unanimous: every writer names Illinois as number one. And if the Illini take care of Minny this weekend, they should be the unanimous number one in the AP and coaches polls.

SidebarThis week Illinois was already unanimous in the coaches poll but one AP voter voted for Duke. We'll give this voter the benefit of the doubt and assume he's been living on Mars for the past few weeks. Of course that's probably where he wants to go after Maryland knocked Duke around last night.

Dick Vitale: "After being upset this week, Duke and Kansas fall, with the perfect Illini taking over at No. 1."

Jay Bilas: "Illinois is the best team. It has become cliché to say that Bruce Weber's players make the extra pass -- they make the "right" pass. This team is the best advertisement you can have for making basketball stats more like hockey. These kids make the pass that leads to the assist better than anyone in college basketball. A joy to watch..."

Joe Lunardi: "I can't remember the last time so many No. 1 seeds have realistically been 'in play' heading into February. As we approach Feb. 1 this year, only Illinois can be said to control its own destiny in that regard..."

Pat Forde: "I'm still not buying the Illinois-will-go-undefeated talk. But what the Illini did at Wisconsin is as impressive as it gets. Backed against the wall, they showed unbreakable will and executed like a veteran team should. Nobody else need apply for the No. 1 ranking right now."